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Former Band Instructor Gets 3 Years For Child Porn

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Jan 8, 2009 3:02 pm US/Central

Former Band Instructor Gets 3 Years For Child Porn

JOLIET, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) ― A west suburban volunteer school band instructor was sentenced Thursday for duping a teenage girl into sending him sexually explicit images of herself over the Internet about three years ago.

Mark Bernal, who taught percussion to members of the Naperville Central High School marching band, was sentenced to three years in prison and must register as a sex offender for life. He was taken into custody immediately after Thursday's hearing.

Bernal, 31, of Chicago's Southwest Side, was charged Feb. 14, 2005, with three felony counts of child pornography and one misdemeanor count of sexual exploitation of a child.

Naperville police arrested him after the parents of a then-15-year-old Naperville Central student expressed concern over what investigators termed "suspicious activity" between Bernal and their daughter.

Bernal had been the girl's teacher in an extracurricular music program. He allegedly used the Internet to masquerade as a teenage girl and exchange correspondence with the unsuspecting victim, police said.

The victim was persuaded to take photos of herself unclothed and in a bathroom, and e-mail them to Bernal, authorities said. The correspondence allegedly lasted about 30 days.

Police seized Bernal's personal computer, which contained pornographic images, during a raid of his apartment in February 2005, authorities said.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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